Since, once again, I am extremely late in blogging, I am going to put all of Spring Break in two posts! Prepare yourselves...
Here in Abu Dhabi, we get 2 wonderful weeks of spring break. For the first week, Will came out to Abu Dhabi and we made a trip to Sri Lanka! Sri Lanka was beautiful and so relaxing. It is so easy to get to from Abu Dhabi and flights and accommodations are cheap. We were able to fly a direct flight that only lasted about 4 hours so we were able to make the most of our week. In Sri Lanka, we stayed in a small beach town called Unawatuna. It has one little road that runs along the coast with many restaurants, bars, and shops on both sides. The hotel we stayed at is called The Pink Elephant and it is owned by someone I know from Dubai. It was a nice little backpackers hotel/hostel just steps from the beach. We had an amazing time relaxing by the beach, drinking beers on the sand, and just enjoying Sri Lanka. We decided to do some day trips while there (well, I decided the day trips and just told Will what we would be doing...) and got to see some different parts of the country.
Our first day trip was to Udawalawe National Park for a elephant safari! The park is home to 500+ elephants and we rode in a safari jeep to explore and see the wildlife. It was so cool! Within the first few minutes, we saw a small herd of elephants - I was so excited! The safari lasted a few hours as we drove around the park and saw alligators, water buffalo, hyenas, lots of birds, and more elephants.
Our next adventure led us to the Sinharaja Rainforest for a hike to some waterfalls. After driving about 2-3 hours on windy roads at 4am, we arrived outside the rain forest where our tuk-tuk driver was waiting. He drove us into the rain forest and was our tour guide for the day. In the rain forest, we saw monkeys, snakes (ew), spiders (ew), birds, and a dog that followed us around. The waterfalls were awesome! Then on our way out of the rainforest, our tuk-tuk driver stopped at his mother's house and invited us over for lunch. We had a traditional Sri Lankan curry meal.
Our last excursion out of Unawatuna was to a nearby town of Galle. We spent an afternoon there walking around the fort and enjoying the outdoors. We visited a small museum and walked the perimeter of the fort near the water. It was a great way to end our Sri Lankan adventure!
Next post: Ethiopia!
Love,
RDL
